Major Contributions, Awards, and Honors
Piaget first became interested in child development when he was studying in Paris. At the time he was working for a testing facility for schoolchildren. While administering intelligence tests to these children, he noticed that younger children seemed to consistently be getting wrong answers for questions that older children and adults had no trouble with. This is when he started focusing on the reasoning and logic behind the child's answers.
All of Piaget's work revolves around the cognitive development of the mental processes. His basic definition of Intelligence was the "ability to cope with the changing world through the continuous organization and reorganization of experiences" (http://aaronseefeldt.com/math/piaget.pdf).
All of Piaget's work revolves around the cognitive development of the mental processes. His basic definition of Intelligence was the "ability to cope with the changing world through the continuous organization and reorganization of experiences" (http://aaronseefeldt.com/math/piaget.pdf).
Assimilation and Accomodation
Another one of Piaget's revolutionary ideas was that of Assimilation and Accomodation.
"In Accommodation, the internal world has to accommodate itself to the evidence with which it is confronted and thus adapt to it, which can be a more difficult and painful process (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm )."
"In Assimilation, what is perceived in the outside world is incorporated into the internal world (note that I am not using Piagetian terminology), without changing the structure of that internal world, but potentially at the cost of "squeezing" the external perceptions to fit — hence pigeon-holing and stereotyping (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm)."
"In Accommodation, the internal world has to accommodate itself to the evidence with which it is confronted and thus adapt to it, which can be a more difficult and painful process (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm )."
"In Assimilation, what is perceived in the outside world is incorporated into the internal world (note that I am not using Piagetian terminology), without changing the structure of that internal world, but potentially at the cost of "squeezing" the external perceptions to fit — hence pigeon-holing and stereotyping (http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/assimacc.htm)."